Tramjatra is a collaborative public project exploring a dialogue between two former British colonial cities through the medium of tramways to manifest a network of temporary public art works, participatory events and publications in both cities, including a book titled tramjatra.

“sets out to map … the collective consciousness of tram users and workers, the system’s reflection of the life and image of the city, and hence the actual thought and art it fosters” – Sukanta Chaudhuri, book review of ‘tramjatra’ in Biblio: A Review of Books Vol. XI NOS. 5 & 6, May- June 2006, (Delhi based journal) www.biblio-india.com

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Follow the way of the tram through two cities with tracks of a shared past. Welcome to networks with promise for the future. Tramjatra undertakes a journey between Kolkata (India) and Melbourne (Australia) through the medium of tramways. This form of creative and critical globalisation from below, built on friendship and dialogue, shows a way forward.

In the context of increasing debates about sustainability and the impacts and processes of globalisation, tramjatra makes new connections through a public arts practice of inter-cultural dialogue. Over the past decade Kolkata’s struggling tramways have faced a persistent threat of closure and the operation of Melbourne ‘s tramways has been privatised and automated. By traveling between two different urban realties, tramjatra provokes both a local and global engagement in the challenges of moving and being moved in contemporary urban life. The book explores the poetic relationship between the practical movement afforded by tramways as a mode of public transport, and the contemporary social, political, economic and creative forces of movement brought to tramways. Essays discuss historical links between Melbourne & Kolkata; examine relations between memory, tram travel and ticketing; locate tramjatra in the context of debates on transculturalism, international education and notions of public art; and unravel issues of translation in inter-cultural arts practice.

After the book about the project ‘tramjatra: imagining Melbourne & Kolkata by tramways’ was published in Australia and India, Mick Douglas and tramjatra founding friends walk the tracks of both cities at night and talk of their journeys.